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Intro:
If you have your bibles let me invite you to open with me to the book of Proverbs.
Today we will be completing our study of the preamble to the book of Proverbs.
This is an introductory paragraph designed to ease us into the book.
The preamble equips us with important vocabulary and concepts that will help us interpret the book as we progress.
Last week we looked at 9 different terms that relate to wisdom found in verses 2-6,
All those nuances from verses 2-6 are helpful… but there is a reason that verse 7 gets its own sermon this week.
The structure of verse 7 is different from verses 2-6.
Verse 7 stands out.
It transitions us from the preamble to the first collection of wisdom writings in the book.
In fact, verse 7 functions as the theological key to the whole book.
If you don’t understand verse 7, you won’t be able to interpret this book.
If you don’t understand verse 7, you won’t understand what wisdom is.
So with that in mind… lets read this preamble to proverbs one more time and then lets give our attention to verse 7.
Lets Pray
Lord increase our right reverent awe-inspired fear of you this morning.
May our fear of you be the key which unlocks the knowledge and wisdom we desperately need to faithfully live in your world.
Speak now O Lord and show yourself to be mighty, awesome, and worthy of our obedience, worthy of our attention, worthy of of our praise.
We pray this by your grace and for your glory in Jesus name amen.
Chapters 1 -9 of Proverbs make up the first collection of wisdom writings in the book.
That section begins with this phrase, “the fear of the Lord” and it ends with this phrase “fear of the Lord”
Notice its re appearance in 9:10.
As we have discussed in the gospel of Mark… sandwiching is a common literary device.
This is where the author bookends sections with similar ideas or phrases on the outside of the writing so that the content in the middle helps you explain the concept on the outside of the sandwhich.
Not only do we see a small “fear of the Lord” sandwich technique with the first collection of writings.
We see it actually encompassing the whole book of Proverbs.
Like a bigger sandwich encompassing the whole book, this phrase marks the beginning and end of Proverbs.
Listen to the final descriptor of the wise woman in the final verses of Proverbs 31.
now back to verse 7.
The fear of the Lord makes up the outer portions of this sandwich.... and thus everything that comes in between helps us to see what it looks like to live life in the fear of the Lord.
Fear of the Lord is therefore the key to the knowledge that is found in this book.
but what in the world does it mean to Fear the Lord???
Just looking at the individual words that make up the phrase don’t help us discern its meaning all that well.
One commentator writes this about the phrase fear of the Lord:
“Even as one will not understand “butterfly” by “analyzing “butter” and “fly” independently, so also “fear of the Lord” cannot be understood by studying “fear” and “the Lord” in isolation from each other.
The expression is a compound.
“Fear of the Lord (yirʾat YHWH) involves both rational and non-rational aspects at the same time.”
- Bruce Waltke
We know what the word Fear means.
We fear things that are dangerous to us.
We fear things that are threatening to our health or our safety.
We fear poisonous snakes, powerful storms, and deadly diseases
We fear anything that would take our joy or our life or that might harm our loved ones?
Is Solomon saying that the key to knowledge and wisdom as he has just described it… is to live scared of God all the time?
Are we to live our lives at all times as if God is dangerous to us?
What about all the moments in the Bible where God shows himself to someone and then he tells them… “do not be afraid”
God very famously told Joshua
When John saw Jesus in all his glory and fell trembling as if he were dead, he heard these words from the lips of Jesus.
So we know there is a wrong way to fear God.... but apparently there is also a very right and necessary way to fear God.
From proverbs we learn that whatever this phrase means, “ The Fear of the Lord”.... it is absolutely a good thing that brings blessing and knowledge to anyone who embraces it.
Listen as the phrase “fear of the Lord” continues throughout the book of Proverbs like glue holding all the wisdom together.
The fear of the Lord in proverbs is never portrayed as a negative thing to be avoided, but rather always a quality to be embraced whole hardheartedly. .
so, what is it?
Proverbs drops us a few hints along the way.
In the verses we just read “fear of the Lord” is connected with
- a hatred for evil,
- a soft heart,
- humility,
- a rejection of our own wisdom in favor of God’s,
- contentment, and
- uprightness.
But while those things may be associated with a person who fears the Lord…and perhaps even a result of their fear of the Lord... those things don’t exactly give us a definition.... so lets keep digging.
We know that Solomon would have been a king who knew his Bible.
He likely had personal hand-written copies of Moses’ writings and he knew them well.
And if we look to the writings of Moses, we learn that Solomon did not just come up with this idea of fearing God.
Solomon used the language that Moses used in Exodus and Deuteronomy.
Solomon is not developing a new concept with this “fear of the Lord” language.
He is building off of a very old concept.
In Deuteronomy 5, The Lord is speaking with Moses.
And God says this about his desire for the people of Israel. .
so here Is God celebrating fear of God as a good thing that he desires for his people and he connects the fear of the Lord with obedience.
Fear of the Lord and obedience are described as inseparable realities.
If you fear God in the right way, you will want to walk through life God’s way.
We see this again in verse 2 of Deuteronomy 6.
Again obedience and fear of the Lord are connected.
That makes sense even with our instinctive understanding of the word fear.
If your afraid of God… if you are afraid of his wrath and his judgments… you will obey his commands right?
Maybe thats what Moses is advocating for here.
Maybe he is saying… Be scared to death of God… then you will obey him… and things will be good.
Perhaps thats the way some of you think of God.
You think of him as wrathful, rule-giving judge, who will smash you if you mess up so your obedience is motivated primarily by your fear of punishment.
Makes sense if these were the only verses we had to go off of…, but what doesn’t make sense is the command that Moses then gives..
What kind of God-fearing obedience does God demand of us?
What is the most important command?
Ok so now we have a very strange dichotomy wrapped up in this phrase “fear of the Lord”
How can fear, obedience, and love coincide in the same responsibility to our God?
And not just any ole love.. a whole heart, whole soul, and whole might consuming love for God.
There is an amazing dichotomy within the concept the fear of the Lord.
The fear of the Lord we are supposed to have is a kind of fear that actually draws us to God.
If it is the kind of fear that drives us away from God…, then its the wrong kind of fear.
This kind of fear of the Lord is somehow, someway, totally and completely compatible and in fact necessary for loving God whole heartedly.
You do not rightly fear him…, then you do not rightly know him much less love him.
C.S. Lewis portrays a helpful dichotomy in his children’s story The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
In the story, Christ is represented by Aslan, the great lion.
When the children in the story first hear about Aslan, they nervously ask this question, “is he safe?”
Their guide, mr.
Beaver answers, “of course he is not safe, but he is good.”
There is a sense in which Aslan should be feared because he is a lion…, but loved because he is a good lion..
There is a very real sense in which God should be rightly feared because he is God…, but loved because he is a good God.
Charles Bridges defines Fear of the Lord in this way.
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